merops_annotations.txt

Marsupials exhibit highly specialized patterns of reproduction and development, making them uniquely valuable for comparative genomics studies with their sister lineage, eutherian (also known as placental) mammals. However, marsupial genomic resources still lag far behind those of eutherian mammals, limiting our insight into mammalian diversity. Here, we present a series of novel genomic resources for the fat-tailed dunnart (Sminthopsis crassicaudata), a mouse-like marsupial that, due to its ease of husbandry and ex-utero development, is emerging as a laboratory model. To enable wider use, we have generated a multi-tissue de novo transcriptome assembly of dunnart RNA-seq reads spanning 15 tissues. This highly representative transcriptome is comprised of 2,093,982 assembled transcripts, with a mean transcript length of 830 bp. The transcriptome mammalian BUSCO completeness score of 93% is the highest amongst all other published marsupial transcriptomes. Additionally, we report an improved fat-tailed dunnart genome assembly which is 3.23 Gb long, organized into 1,848 scaffolds, with a scaffold N50 of 72.64 Mb. The genome annotation, supported by assembled transcripts and ab initio predictions, revealed 21,622 protein-coding genes. Altogether, these resources will contribute greatly towards characterizing marsupial biology and mammalian genome evolution.

有袋类动物展现出高度专业化的繁殖与发育模式，使其在与其姐妹谱系——真兽亚纲（亦称有胎盘哺乳动物）——的比较基因组学研究领域具有独特的价值。然而，有袋类动物的基因组资源与有胎盘哺乳动物相比仍存在较大差距，这限制了我们对哺乳动物多样性的深入了解。在本研究中，我们针对尾脂袋貂（Sminthopsis crassicaudata）这一易于饲养和胚胎外发育的类似鼠类有袋动物，提供了一系列新的基因组资源。为促进其更广泛的应用，我们生成了覆盖15种组织的尾脂袋貂RNA-seq读段的多组织从头转录组组装。这一高度代表性的转录组由2,093,982个组装转录本组成，平均转录本长度为830碱基对。该转录组的哺乳动物BUSCO完整性评分高达93%，为所有已发表的袋类动物转录组中最高。此外，我们还报道了一个改进的尾脂袋貂基因组组装，其长度为3.23 Gb，由1,848个支架组成，支架N50为72.64 Mb。基因组注释，在组装转录本和从头预测的支持下，揭示了21,622个编码蛋白基因。综上所述，这些资源将极大地有助于描绘有袋类动物生物学特征和哺乳动物基因组进化的历程。